When some people speak, you listen and I hope that everyone hears this.

When it comes to the art of Hatting, Philip Treacy OBE is head of the class.  I believe Philip Treacy is not only a master of his craft he is also an Icon of Fashion and Design and Today's culture.

You hear 'Racing Fashion' rant on about how the word 'Fascinator' is officially not a word in the English Dictionary, although we do bring acronyms like LOL etc, (no pun intended) into our everyday vocabulary.

Recently Huffington Post Reported on the official obituary of the fascinator and descriptions of what Philip Treacy really thinks,

As follows,

Philip Treacy: 'The Fascinator Is Dead & I'm Delighted'

We never thought we'd report such breaking hat news, but it looks like we finally have an urgent update straight from Philip Treacy himself: The era of the fascinator is officially over.

“The fascinator is dead and I’m delighted,” the celebrity milliner proclaimed in The Sunday Times yesterday.

Treacy has become the hat maker of choice for everyone from Lady Gaga to Sarah Jessica Parker to Kate Middleton, designing more than a handful of headpieces for 2011's royal wedding (including Princess Beatrice's controversial topper). So why the change of heart?

“The word fascinator sounds like a dodgy sex toy and what’s so fascinating about a fascinator?" he said. “Mass production means that they became so cheap to produce that now they are no more than headbands with a feather stuck on with a glue gun. We’re seeing a return to proper hats.”

Perhaps the British designer's newfound aesthetic is an attempt to align himself withQueen Elizabeth II's tastes. Just last year, at the height of fascinator fandom, the ornate hats were banned from the Royal Enclosure at the Royal Ascot, meaning: If you want to sit with the queen, you better wear a "proper" hat.

Now that the head honcho of the headgear industry has officially deemed fascinators passé, we're going to have to say a formal goodbye to the eye-catching hats -- after all, if Philip's not making them, then surely our favorite notables won't be wearing them.

Check out some stars rocking the look below and tell us: Are you glad that the fascinator is "dead"?

RIP, old friend...

Words by R Adams

Huffington Post, Click Here

Racing Fashion, "I would really not think for a minute that Philip Treacy would say to any of his clients, "Here let me put this fascinator on you!".   I really feel sorry for him that he is the one that has to constantly tell everyone that there is no such thing and stop referring to feather head wear in the same breath as a hat.  Anyone can make a so called 'Fascinator', a Hatter or Milliner has decades of training and understanding of balance and art combine with unique talent."

“Hats are always important. Full stop,” said costume designer Catherine Martin when asked about the elaborate chapeaux featured in Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby. “I think that one of the things that defines the period is evening headwear. Hats enhance the characters, create an otherworldliness, and help the audience understand that we’re in a time other than our own.” In order to fully realize Gatsby’s sartorial Jazz Age fantasy, Martin enlisted Sydney-based milliner Rosie Boylan to create cloches, boaters, and beyond for Daisy and co. Boylan, who has worked with Martin and Lurhmann since making headpieces for Moulin Rouge in 2000, has been crafting hats for over thirty years. Here, she talks to Style.com about designing for Gatsby, pushing historical boundaries, and how to pull off a twenties topper.

How else are hats used to tell a story?

Well for one, hats help speak to the age and define the era. But I think Baz likes to use hats as a reveal—as a way to introduce characters. I believe, when Daisy and Jordan are first seen in the movie, they’re hidden by their hats. It’s like the veil being lifted to introduce the characters.

Did you and your team make everything, or did you use vintage hats, too?
We made just about everything, except the lobster headpieces that the trapeze artists wear in the party scene. Those are vintage pieces from Paris. They’re exquisitely made. We reworked them because they were incredibly worn out and then gave them a surrealist twist by putting lobsters and butterflies on them. It was a reinvention.

Speaking of the party scene, what did you design to go with the Prada party dresses?
Every Prada garment has a headpiece, and they’re all very expressive—lots of feathers, lots of bling. There’s a range of beautiful turbans and there are a lot of big headpieces. Some of them are more theatrical in their interpretation of a fashion reference from the twenties, like maybe an Erté. Catherine gave me license to push the fashion of the period, so these hats are for 1920s fashion people who are essentially going out to a fancy dress party. They’re for women who are dressing up beyond fashion.

Does that mean the hats are not historically accurate?

No, we did a lot of research. We referenced fashion illustrations from the twenties, and I had a stack of books, but I didn’t want to get too stuck in recreating a period. I think it was more important to capture the spirit of the twenties and how fresh and free they were. It wasn’t just about looking at pictures of hats, it was about trying to grasp a sense of how the times had changed, and then reflect that in the costumes.

What are some of your favorite pieces in the film?
There is one piece—I call it The Moth—and it’s worn by a featured extra with one of the Prada dresses during the party scene. It’s made from a big piece of devore velvet and there’s a lot of crazy ostrich fringe around the edges. There’s another that Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Jordan, wears when she’s meeting Tobey Maguire—Nick—on the rooftop of a hotel. It’s this mauve cloche with a Tiffany’s broach that sits down on her face and sweeps around under her chin.

Do you think the costume from The Great Gatsby will have an influence on how women dress?

I’m certainly selling a lot of cloches, and that interest is fueled by Gatsby. I think women are really going to tap into the Gatsby look because it’s quite feminine and soft and joyful, and I think that, post financial crisis, people are looking for a little joy. And women are rediscovering the power a hat has to transform their look and to give them some extra ways of styling themselves. I have young women come into my shop and put on a cloche, and it comes down and frames their faces and they go wow.

And what is the key to styling yourself successfully in a twenties hat?Any really successful hat is one that woks so well on the person, that you don’t say that’s an amazing hat, you say, you look incredible in that hat—it almost disappears. So the hat has to frame the face and support the personality and the looks of the person. It’s not just somewhacky thing stuck on somebody’s head. It has refinement, and actually suits the person.

Racing Fashion Thanks Style.com for this amazing story.

Photo: Getty Images

Top milliner Stephen Jones has had quite a whirlwind April. Early on in the month he headed to Spain, where he's mentoring emerging hat and shoe designers at La Roca Village, Barcelona and Las Rozas Village, Madrid as part of Chic Outlet Shopping's Head Over Heels for Spring campaign.

Then, he continued on to Japan, where he spent two and a half weeks teaching students at Musashino Art University. "When I was starting off, I didn't have any help. [Karl Lagerfeld] was the only designer in Paris who was making hats. So I'm quite pleased to be able to help people," Jones told ELLE.com yesterday, fresh off the plane from Tokyo. "I'm always fascinated by what [the students] have to offer, because they're in their 20s, I'm 56, so their point of view is very different from mine."

ELLE: You and Philip Treacy are the fashion industry's two top millinery go-tos, and you're both U.K.-born. Why do you think it worked out that way?

Stephen Jones: I think it's because we wear hats for weddings here, and for the races. So that whole [millinery] tradition has been kept alive.

ELLE: You mention the races—have you ever been to the Kentucky Derby, which is coming up soon?

SJ: No, I haven't, and I really, really want to go. It's just before the cruise collections in Paris, so I'm going to be in Monaco working on Dior. But I always look at pictures of it.

ELLE: Are you excited about The Great Gatsby? It looks like there are so many great headpieces in it.

SJ: I can't wait to see it. I actually saw some of the sketches that Prada did for the clothes. I think it's going to be amazing, and a real influence on fashion, too.

ELLE: We read that your head is sample size. Do you design on your own head?

SJ: Yeah, I always try on things to see if they're comfortable and if they're balanced. I never really think, "Do they suit me?" I normally try it on a pretty girl for that. But it's good to know if the hat's too heavy on one side and going to fall off.

ELLE: Did you hear that John Galliano, who you collaborated with for a long time at Dior, isgoing to teach at Parsons The New School for Design?

SJ: Yeah, I think it's really great for the students, and they're lucky. They will really learn a lot from John—the way he creates things and his experience in the fashion business. I think he will learn from them, too. Because that's the thing I've found about teaching, it actually works both ways.

ELLE: You've worked with a wide range of clients; how is designing for someone like Marc Jacobs different than designing for someone like Beyoncé, for instance?

SJ: It's the same, really. You have to understand how it's going to be worn and where it's going to be worn, why it's going to be worn.

ELLE: Beanies have been super popular in street style recently. Are you seeing any new silhouette emerging for spring?

SJ: The beanie thing really came from the beanies that I did with Raf Simons at Jil Sander, which was for Summer 2012. Certainly those have bred the revival. I think the beanie's going to be around for a while, just because it's so easy to wear. I'm seeing a lot of scarves being tied on heads and things like that here in London for spring. Bandanas that have just been knotted around the head.

Racing Fashion, "Stephen Jones is one of the most courteous and polite people I have ever met.  It was such a great honour and I was very nervous about the interview.  I was totally star struck.  Usually people, love movie stars and rock stars, but Designers, Milliners and Artists are my 'Rock Stars'.  This is wonderful that the 'Hat' is now a regular street wear item and shows that people are feeling more confident in wearing a hat.  I regularly talk to Stephen Jones good friend fellow Milliner 'Kim Fletcher', she holds Stephen Jones in such high regard and tells about his passion for hats and how he loves to mentor.  This is important for his genius to be integrated into a new generation.  Stephen Jones, thank you for being such a star of a milliner and again showing us that head wear is more than a regular structure, it is about having confidence and enjoying to have a talking piece on your head."

Interview by Elle.

If you live anywhere other than Chicago, you can feel that spring is in the air. With the season of blossoms and color, flowers aren't the only things sprouting this time of year. Hats bloom like wildflowers in the spring and milliner Jenny Pfanenstiel, a master milliner of sculptural hats that make a statement, claims she has never been busier.

"You may not see many couture milliners like me in the United States; but, milliners are still very popular in places like Europe.  I think after seeing celebrities wear hats, like Princess Kate Middleton, Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker, people are starting to realize how great hats can be as an everyday accessory.  I teach hat making workshops and I have more students than ever.  Everyone wants to learn how to make hats like a true milliner once did.  This makes me very happy because my goal is to help keep the millinery craft alive for many years to come," Pfanenstiel says.

Hat season seems to officially kick off with the Kentucky Derby in early May, but Pfanenstiel caters to select clients all year long, making hats for specific occasions, such as performances by the Joffrey Ballet, actors in the play, Crowns, The Oprah Show and Michelle Obama. The intricate process of creating a one-of-a kind piece never grows old for her. "One of the things I love about creating hats is seeing the reaction on someone's face when they put one of my hats on for the first time.  It is as if my hats transform them.  They stand up taller, their smile is a little bigger and they have a confidence that can conquer the world.  This is why I make hats.  I love bringing joy to a person through something that I made."

Serious hat designing isn't for the non-committed. The designing process can be arduous and can take three to four days. Pfanenstiel draws her inspirations from all eras, including the '20s and '40s, and from sources like old music, old architecture, cobble stone roads, plants, coral, vintage lace and trims, buttons and old photographs. "Believe it or not, I do not sketch my ideas.  I am a horrible drawer and didn't even draw when I made costumes prior to hat making.  I do have a sketch pad by my bed, because I do dream up a lot of hat designs, but in the morning when I wake up, half the time I wonder what I was thinking because I cannot understand my own sketching.  I love creating by working with the materials.  So much inspiration comes through me just by working and moving the material around a hat form. I like using unconventional materials and manipulating it by free forming the material with my hands. For the most part, the material tells me what it wants to become.  I form it, sew it and then you have a completed hat."

Jenny says that she is constantly thinking about what is the right hat for someone's head and ensemble. "When I see someone wearing an elegant outfit, I do often think that a hat would have been a great addition if they are not wearing one.  On the flip side, I sometimes see someone wearing a hat that needs adjusting and I make a suggestion on how to make it more comfortable or stylish by tilting it just a bit."

Always in demand for her original creations, incredible detail and savvy sense for someone's inner character and bringing it to life in a hat, Ms. Pfanenstiel has recently opened two new locations in Chicago and Kentucky that carry her hats.   So, if you are feeling like you would like to make your own statement this Spring, now might be the time to show your true colors and don a Pfanenstiel original. The Spring flowers will be jealous.

Thank you to Huffington Post for this article, click here.